It’s true that the bill is better (or less bad) than it was, thanks to Kasich. But it still deserves to die.

In backing S.B. 310, Kasich, elected in 2010 by 1.9 million Ohioans, has yoked himself to a Senate president, elected by 22 other GOP senators, and a House speaker, elected by 59 other House Republicans, to advance the president’s and speaker’s caucus agendas, which hardly can match Kasich’s statewide agenda.

S.B. 310 will stall, arguably stop, Ohio’s advance toward renewable energy, though that’s an industry praised and promoted by JobsOhio, the Kasich gizmo he says is poising Ohio for the future. What some of SB 310’s shell-game legalese may actually do is poise, say, the New York (state) Power Authority for the future. That’s because the bill could let out-of-state hydropower elbow aside Ohio-produced renewable energy.

S.B 310 freezes energy standards Ohio Republican and Democrats jointly wrote in 2008. S.B. 310’s defenders note the frozen standards will thaw in two years. Sure. And 30 years ago, Ohio “temporarily” repealed its cap on credit card interest rates. If you open your mail, you know how that’s gone.

What S.B. 310 really says is that Ohio can just keep on, keepin’ on, no worries. So if, perchance, emphysema, or worse, hijacks your lungs because of belching Ohio power plants, that’s mere collateral damage: Regrettable, but cheap power is cheap power. No broken eggs -- no omelet; no sooty lungs -- no juice.

Of course, the charges on your monthly electric bill don’t list the hidden costs Ohioans pay because of lives shortened and lands polluted. Those are tomorrow’s problems – aren’t they? – just like those two old manufactured gas plants Duke Energy now wants Cincinnati-area ratepayers to clean up.

A Duke predecessor abandoned one plant in the 1920s, the other in the 1960s. Both times, someone in Cincinnati or Columbus decided clean-up was tomorrow’s problem. Today’s now tomorrow. And the bills are due. Same thing will happen with the superficially “cheaper” power S.B. 310 favors.

Team Kasich, shrewd as it is, seems to forget how he became governor – and by just 77,000 votes. The Democrat Kasich unseated, then-Gov. Ted Strickland, was seen as a nice guy. Whether Strickland was or wasn’t, the words “nice guy” aren’t necessarily the first two that come to mind about Kasich. Strickland wasn’t a manager, though, and didn’t have “the vision thing.” And he didn’t mobilize a two-year House Democratic majority to do much, one of modern Ohio’s sadly lost opportunities.

So Kasich climbed on a soapbox in 2010, saying he had new ideas for a new Ohio. And he does. And Ohioans bought in.

True, some ideas flopped, such as Senate Bill 5, an attack on public employee unions that voters vetoed. But Kasich rebounded. With irrepressible energy, Kasich’s been herding Ohio toward the future. One day, he’s here. Next day, he’s there – cutting ribbons, opening plants; boosting, not knocking. That’s why a 200-year-old post-industrial state opted for John Kasich four years ago: Not because Ohio loved him, but because Ohio thought it needed him – to prod the state forward.

But S.B. 310 would shove Ohio backward. So today’s Statehouse mystery is what Kasich thinks he owes S.B. 310’s cheerleaders, Senate President Keith Faber and House Speaker William Batchelder. Because whatever that is, Kasich seems determined to damage his image to repay it.

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